Interview with Mindy Dougherty, author of A Resilient Warrior and Mindy's Fight

 Mindy Dougherty

Please tell us a little about yourself.

My name is Mindy Dougherty, and I am the author of Mindy’s Fight, and A Resilient Warrior. Which is an autobiography about my life and overcoming abuse to become resilient. I have created a program called Feed My City, which helps people learn how to garden to decrease anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder by learning how to plant the seeds and grow plants for both myself and to give to others such as food banks and child advocacy groups around the world. This program also teaches children nonattachment to material things by growing plants for themselves and giving to others so they also learn to give without expectation of return.

When did you start writing?

I have been writing since I was in kindergarten, but not seriously until 2014 when I had some unfortunate events happen to me while at the San Antonio, Texas VA Hospital that altered and changed my life as I knew it. This is what I write about in both Mindy’s Fight and A Resilient Warrior.

What projects have been published?

I have published Mindy’s Fight e-reader and A Resilient Warrior both an e-reader and my first paperback available on amazon.com and www.feedmycity.net for those who want autographed copies of A Resilient Warrior. I was also published in a medical journal for the C-Peptide studies I did with The Barbara Davis Center for research of Diabetes and Endocrine disorders.

I can be found at www.feedmycity.net which has a small video and my social media outlets available with podcasts of some of my poetry read out loud.

How did you select the title of your novel?

Throughout my life, I have encountered sexual abuse, incest, and being tortured by the individuals that were supposed to be treating me at the San Antonio, Texas VA Medical Hospital and Center. Since then I have had to relearn how to walk, speak, and swallow making my life completely different as I knew it before the events that occurred in 2014. I am recovering and with therapy getting better with time. I feel through perseverance and resiliency I have been able to inspire those who have wanted or needed some kind of hope to prevent more suicides from happening. I also was speaking to high school students before Covid hit and hope to resume this when changes are made and we are allowed to do public speaking events again.

 What was your inspiration?

My inspiration for writing my book came from my grandma who asked me to write a book twenty-one years ago. I am very glad I waited to write these as I have been in three comas, have had three transplants, and four organs taken out to include my appendix, gallbladder, duodenum, and pancreas making me a diabetic in 2004 once my pancreas was taken out. I have been doing research and was published in several magazines for diabetes prevention and awareness as well as studies to help others find a cure for it. I have also been published in Women’s Magazine and most recently Integrity Magazine in the UK, to help inspire and give hope to those who are in need. 

 What are you currently working on?

Currently, I am getting ready for the seasons to change to get back to gardening and helping expand Feed My City, as I hope to be able to spread awareness to local schools and possibly get into the jail system to decrease recidivism and teach inmates that by gardening they can help their communities flourish once they get out and hopefully become a better citizen within their community.

I have had A Resilient Warrior bought internationally and hope to keep spreading my knowledge and inspiration to as many as will listen.

What are you reading at the moment?

I am reading scripts for future films that I have been asked to consider producing and doing social media events for.

What do you like to do in your free time when you're not reading or writing?

I like to produce and act in movies as well as TV series. I am also the social media marketer for a few projects and will be walking in the canyon and gardening as well as meditating to keep me grounded.

Do you have any advice for other authors?

Writing will not make you rich so you may do this for the love of writing but make sure you keep a day job as well because it sincerely doesn’t pay much and a lot of time goes into it for not much return. For me, I have found an inner justice and peace that I would not have been able to find if I hadn’t written A Resilient Warrior. I also believe I am continuing to inspire people to make their dreams come true and really hope to decrease suicidal ideation amongst those who struggle on a daily basis.

And finally, can you tell us some fun facts about yourself, such as crossed skydiving off my bucket list.

I am a United States Army Veteran and served from 1995 to 1999 as a field combat medic. I became a trauma nurse after relearning how to read in my 20’s as I struggle with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and executive functioning disorder. I have had two stem cell transplants called mesenchymal and exosomal stem cell transplants which have taken the burning down to at least 50% and the swelling in my foot is never as bad as it was, so I remain humbled, grateful, ad thankful to have legs that work.

I am in a film called Bridge of the Doomed which comes out in October 2021 and will be working in the future to continue to build Feed My City in areas that want to help their communities.

 Connect with Mindy

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Link for National Stem Cell Institute video after personal success with Mesenchymal Stem Cells

National Stem Cell Institute Video

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US Army Veteran Mindy Dougherty has a warrior spirit that will capture your attention. The resiliency and strength she embodies while overcoming childhood abuse, PTSD, and more medical adversities than one can imagine will inspire you. Navigating a lifetime of trauma could leave a person bitter and hateful, but Mindy takes a completely different approach. She uses comedy, gratitude, and gardening to influence healing for herself and others. Mindy’s garden, known as Feed My City, promotes healing, growth, and health for those who may be fighting their own battle for survival. Mindy Dougherty is the epitome of a resilient warrior, a fact that is showcased throughout this narrative of her life.

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Mindy's Fight is the story about one Army female combat medic's PTSD journey from childhood sexual violence to medical neglect at the hands of the VA to finding herself.

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Book Spotlight: A Resilient Warrior by Mindy Dougherty

 

US Army Veteran Mindy Dougherty has a warrior spirit that will capture your attention. The resiliency and strength she embodies while overcoming childhood abuse, PTSD, and more medical adversities than one can imagine will inspire you. Navigating a lifetime of trauma could leave a person bitter and hateful, but Mindy takes a completely different approach. She uses comedy, gratitude, and gardening to influence healing for herself and others. Mindy’s garden, known as Feed My City, promotes healing, growth, and health for those who may be fighting their own battle for survival. Mindy Dougherty is the epitome of a resilient warrior, a fact that is showcased throughout this narrative of her life.

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  About the Author

Mindy Dougherty

The magic of creativity exists in all types of people from all walks of life. Some know from a young age they want to be artists in the film industry, others realize it later on after significant life experiences. This is the case of Mindy Dougherty. Four days after graduating from Antioch High School, and shortly after she won Miss San Francisco Bay Teen USA, Mindy decided to join the United States Army and was stationed first in Germany. She served as a combat field medic. While serving in Germany, she was deployed to Tazar, Hungary, then Tuzla West, Bosnia. Mindy contracted a parasite while there and became sick with both appendicitis and pancreatitis at the same time and had to be evacuated back to Germany. She had her appendix taken out then her gallbladder later when she returned to her new duty station in the MEDDAC Unit at Fort Carson, CO, where she was appointed, elected, then re-elected by her peers to represent over 5,000 soldiers. She was sent to Washington DC, serving as their voice as she strove to make a difference for current and future soldiers.

 After receiving her honorable discharge and garnering a BSN from the University of Colorado at Anschutz in Denver, she was a trauma nurse and then an interventional radiology nurse who specialized in pain control, and post anesthesia care. She has since studied the ancient art of Watsu (water-based Shiatsu massage) which led to her nickname of “Water Gypsy,” shortened for wtrgpsy.” Having her work published in medical journals for the research she has done with diabetes to help veterans obtain better care in the VA Medical systems demonstrated a writing talent that would bear fruit when she wrote her memoir, Mindy's Fight, then A Resilient Warrior, which details her health issues as well as struggles with domestic violence, sexual abuse, incest, and medical abuse at the VA Hospital in San Antonio, Texas. Her writing skills have also helped Dougherty with her burgeoning acting career (watch for her in Bridge of the Doomed: which is due out in October 2021) and also with her latest venture—a program called Feed My City (www.feedmycity.net) that has helped many other Veterans and others deal with trauma through the restorative and sustaining practice of gardening.

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A guide to ancient gardening

History Extra

Roman garden at the House of the Golden Cupids, Pompeii. (Linda Farrar)

The art of gardening and horticulture can be said to have its beginning with the first farmers, when they started to cultivate vegetables as opposed to field crops. Vegetable plots tended to be located close to the home, as these plants needed more watering and special care. More often than not the plot would have had an enclosing barrier to prevent livestock from eating the plants growing inside it. 

 

While there may initially have been a need for self-sufficiency, over time gardens have also been a way for people to enhance their surroundings. The art of gardening can be found in the ancient literature, art and archaeology of most early societies, from Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome and Byzantium to the early Islamic and medieval worlds. There are even hints of the existence of Minoan and Etruscan gardens.

 

Actual evidence for horticulture and gardening, as opposed to agriculture, can be dated back to the third or fourth millennium BC at least, to the early civilisations of Mesopotamia and Egypt. In countries with hot summer climates, measures were necessary to ensure that the fierce sun would not scorch plants. One solution – as mentioned in an early Mesopotamian myth – was for the gardener to plant a wide branching tree to create vital shade, allowing more delicate plants to grow below its ample canopy.

 

Trees became an integral part of a garden. In ancient Egypt, trees were planted to make sacred groves around royal tombs. One of the earliest was created in the Old Kingdom, fourth dynasty, for Pharaoh Sneferu at Dahshur (c2613–2589 BC). Trees were also used in urban gardens to provide shade, and there was a conscious preference to included fruit- or nut-bearing trees. The most favoured trees in Egypt were three species of palm tree (the date palm, doum palm & argun – phoenix dactylifera, hyphaene thebaic and medemia argun respectively), the sycomore fig (ficus sycomorus) and the beautiful persea (mimusops laurifolia). 

 

One tomb owner called Ineni, architect and royal gardener of pharaoh Tuthmosis I (c1504–1492 BC), mentions having 540 trees, from over 15 species, in what must have been a large garden or orchard. Meanwhile, the tomb of high-ranking Egyptian official Meketre (c2055–2004 BC) contained a remarkable wooden model of a smaller domestic walled garden, featuring a large rectangular pool surrounded by seven large fruiting trees. A range of trees and plants, such as pomegranates, were introduced into Egypt over the years. Pharaoh Tuthmosis III even had images of notable plants that he had brought back from a military campaign carved onto the walls of a room in the temple at Karnak. This room is now usually called the Botanical Garden.
 

_{Model of a walled garden with central pool and columned portico, from the tomb of ancient Egyptian nobleman Meketre. (Werner Forman/Universal Images Group/Getty Images)}

 

Some Assyrian kings in Mesopotamia extracted a tribute of fruit trees from the cities they conquered in more northerly regions and were known to have created large gardens, orchards and game parks. Images of both Sargon II and Sennacherib's gardens were carved on reliefs in palaces (at Khorsabad and Nineveh respectively). Despite being stylised, they give an indication of the possible layout and features that the gardens may have contained, such as pathways, pavilions and altars. 

 

In each ancient culture we find a variety of deities responsible for fertility and agriculture, including specific ones intended to protect plants and crops. Gardens also featured frequently in ancient mythology. Many myths were woven to explain the features of a particular plant, such as the Greek tales of Daphne or Nárkissos (narcissus). There were also tales of rivalry between competitive plants to determine which was the most useful or beautiful. The Mesopotamian tale of the tamarisk and the date-palm is perhaps the earliest of these, but the theme is also found in myths about the one-upmanship of the olive and bay tree in later cultures. Legends about beautiful gardens were popular, from the fabled Homeric Garden of Alkinoös and the Garden of the Hesperides with its famous golden apples, to the Biblical Garden of Eden, or the Islamic Garden of Eram. Favoured gardens could be seen as a paradise on earth and on occasion, garden owners in several ancient societies compared their own gardens with mythical ones.

 

In some places, traces of a garden’s design are discernable. In the Roman period, plant beds and pools were not always rectangular: straight lines were often alleviated by semi-circular or rectangular recesses. Topiary (invented by the Romans) was carefully clipped and hedges were given architectural recesses to soften the lines of a pathway, as at Fishbourne Palace in southern England. 

 

Design is especially noticeable at Pompeii and Herculaneum, where volcanic ash and tufaceous mud from the eruption of mount Vesuvius in AD 79 covered and preserved gardens. Evidence of both large and small gardens has been discovered in these Roman towns. Some were surrounded by a peristyle of columns (such as in the House of the Golden Cupids), while in others only a narrow strip was available to be planted. For the latter, the house owner was often found to have painted the wall behind the plants with a suitable verdant scene. This would have given a wonderful trompe l'oeil effect, enlarging the appearance of the garden.

 

^{Peristyle of columns round a garden in the House of the Golden Cupids. (DeAgostini/Getty Images)}

 

The gardeners who toiled in gardens are often depicted on Egyptian tomb walls, and in mosaics and illuminated manuscripts of later periods. Ancient texts reveal the nature of the work they carried out. Fortunately, because agrihorticultural manuals were considered so important, several have survived. Each society had a name for a gardener, sometimes differentiated by the specific tasks they performed, such as water carrier, vegetable gardener, ornamental gardener (landscape gardener) or head gardener. The hard work of gardeners was often highly thought of and in some cases individual gardener's names have survived. There are even instances of several generations of gardeners.

 

Garden plants are mentioned in the contemporary literature of each period, and in surviving herbal and agricultural manuals. Literary plant descriptions can be compared with botanical discoveries made through archaeology, and this data has been collated to provide a plant list for the major cultures of the past. It is interesting to see how many ancient plant names have survived, in an adapted form, into our modern Linnaean Latin botanical naming system.

 

In ancient Egypt, flowers were cultivated in order to make bouquets, not just for gardens’ owners but also to honour the gods. Tomb paintings show offerings of foodstuffs and garden produce including vegetables and fruit, on top of which bouquets of flowers were placed. Flowers were also grown to make garlands and floral crowns, and there were even court florists. Archaeologists found that Tutankhamun's innermost coffin had been decorated with a floral collar made from numerous flower petals sewn together. 

 

Garlands, wreathes and floral crowns were also made by people of later cultures. The Achaemenid Persians employed numerous garland makers, and the Minoans, Etruscans, Greeks and Romans also enjoyed wearing these ephemeral items. In one section of his ancient work Deipnosophistae, Athenaeus of Naucratis names the various plants used to make specific types of garland, revealing those in favour at the time. In most societies, the rose was the most admired flower of all, followed by the lily, sweet violet and narcissus. However, the climate of different regions would have had a bearing on the plants that they were able to cultivate, leading to differences in the range of plant species available. 

 

Over the centuries plants were introduced and propagated by ancient societies, first by the Egyptians, Assyrians and Achaemenid Persians, then later by the Romans, who disseminated a wide variety of plants throughout their provinces. Early Islamic gardeners and botanists in southern Spain continued this process, in turn introducing more plants to medieval Europe. Each period had its own characteristics, but it is clear that, across ancient cultures, gardens were seen as amenities that could also give pleasure to the people who used them. Although they required work and maintenance, they were still viewed as areas for relaxation and contemplation. As in the present day, the gardens of the past fulfilled a need to nurture and to enhance people’s surroundings.

 

Linda Farrar is author of Gardens and Gardeners of the Ancient World (Windgather, January  2016).